How royals will have marked the late Queen Elizabeth’s 98th birthday, according to King Charles’ former butler

A former butler to the King has revealed how the royal family might have marked the late Queen Elizabeth‘s birthday.

Grant Harrold, who worked for Charles and Camilla for seven years and is now based in Gloucestershire, said the Firm will be honouring her in a low-key, personal way.

Queen Elizabeth was buried at Windsor Castle’s King George VI Memorial Chapel in the Royal Vault on September 19, 2022, following her state funeral – and would have been 98 today.

He speculated that the family will likely use today to reflect on memories and the time they spent with the former monarch.

Mr Harrold revealed the family is not likely to do anything publicly, but instead raise a simple toast to Elizabeth at dinner this evening.

Speaking to Slingo, he said: ‘They won’t publicly do anything. Privately, I have no doubt they’ll raise a toast to her in the evening. I’m sure the day will very much be spent reflecting on the late Queen.’

Mr Harrold said he can ‘almost guarantee’ that the household will leave flowers on her tomb to mark what would have been her 98th birthday.

‘If you were to go to Windsor Castle, it’s very likely there’ll be some flowers on the tomb that have been sent by the family members,’ he said.

‘Sometimes on royal anniversaries, flowers are sent to royal graves. It’s very possible there will be flowers on the tombstone.

‘There will also be well wishers there on the day as well, who may want to put flowers on the grave or around the area.’

Mr Harrold, who worked for Charles and Camilla between 2004 and 2011, said Queen Elizabeth had an ‘amazing sense of humour’, adding that you never knew whether she was being serious or joking around.

‘I used to hear about her sense of humour and the fact that sometimes you couldn’t tell if she was being serious or not and she had this amazing humour and sometimes she’d catch you off guard,’ he said.

Mr Harrold then shared a hilarious anecdote about a time when nobody had followed the late Queen to go for dinner in Scotland one evening.

He said: ‘I went in to announce dinner. I went to see her and I walked up, nodded my head and said “dinner is ready” and there were other guests there.

‘She walked out the room and she kind of looked back towards the room and nobody else had followed her.

‘Of course, royal protocol kind of states they should follow or at least already be in the dining room and they were all still in the other room chatting.

‘So she ran down the corridor and I remember looking thinking the Queen is running, what do I do?

‘So I started running, well not running because I thought it would be rude to run as a butler so I kind of did a trot into the room and when we got in there she looked around and she smiled and I heard the rest of the guests running down the corridor to come in.

‘She looked at me then she gave me a wink as if to say “how about that”. I was like “oh my god, you are so cool,” and I loved that. Everyone knew that’s what she was like, which I then discovered.’

Mr Harrold paid a sweet tribute to the late Queen and said she was ‘always so polite’ and was detail-driven, adding that she quick to spot if something had been done incorrectly.

He said: ‘When they say she lit up a room, you went into the room and you knew she was in the room.

‘You walked in and you could spot her and she was always so polite, so polite, always smiling and making a joke or comment.

‘Very observant, she noticed every detail. I used to get excited if I was on duty and she was there. To me it was brilliant, it was so exciting.

‘On the observant part, when there was a state dinner or a banquet she would inspect the table.

‘You’ve got an army of staff, but she would still go around the table to make sure it had been done correctly. She noticed things if something wasn’t right. ‘

Queen Elizabeth II was 96 when she died on September 8, 2022. The announcement shocked the world, with many royal fans flying from other countries to London to pay their respects.

Hundreds of thousands of mourners waited in queues for several hours on end, with some even camping out overnight, to see her Lying-in-State at Westminster Hall.